Hogan gets back to basics
St Martin’s take on James Stephens at 2pm tomorrow in Nowlan Park, followed by O’Loughlin Gaels versus Ballyhale Shamrocks.
O’Loughlins star Brian Hogan, Kilkenny’s All-Ireland-winning captain, said the focus is now totally on the club scene.
“We’re fortunate enough to be used to it now, we’re used to the routine — you enjoy the week after the All-Ireland but by the Friday or Saturday the following week you’re back with the club, usually.
“With your first All-Ireland it’s different, but the way we go about it, it’s directed from the top down, from Brian Cody. During the summer, even when we’re at full tilt with the county, we’re released back to the clubs and that sends out a signal — both to us and to the clubs.
“Brian puts a big emphasis on that, on the clubs’ entitlement to have matches played as well, that he’s not monopolising the whole thing. So there’s an onus on you to perform for your club, too, be that during the summer or after an All-Ireland. Next year won’t be long coming round and you don’t want that thrown at you, that you didn’t put your heart into it with your club.”
They’ll have to put their hearts into it tomorrow. Ballyhale pose a huge obstacle, says Hogan.
“From the perspective of hunger, they’re coming back after losing last year. Teams which lose tend to come back a bit harder, just as we did with Kilkenny.
“They weren’t overly impressive in their game with Carrickshock, but typical of Shamrocks, they hung in there and got the draw, and that game stood to them. They seemed to learn most for the replay and they won relatively comfortably in the end.
“No matter what Shamrocks side you face you’ll have to be on top of your game. Last year at one stage we were completely outhurling them, winning 1-10 to 0-6, coasting, and the next thing it was 1-10 to 1-7: they were back in it despite all the hurling we’d done.
“They’re like that. They can get two goals out of nothing and come right back into a game.”
Hogan and company are happy enough with their progress so far.
“After the club All-Ireland defeat we realised we’d done a lot of hurling, so we felt we needed to bring in some freshness. The key for us was to finish in the top two of the league, which we did.
“Against Dicksboro in the quarter-final we gave a poor display.
We’d beaten them comfortably in the league a couple of weeks before, so we might have underestimated them a bit, and they’d had two good championship games as well.
“We’re that kind of team, though. We don’t make it easy for ourselves. We nearly have to put ourselves into a hole and then dig our way out. We went four points down and lads might have been thinking, ‘it’s not going to be our day’, but we got through it.
“The main thing is that everyone has to realise that won’t be good enough to beat Shamrocks.”
Kilkenny SHC semi-final fixtures (Tomorrow): James Stephens v St Martins, Nowlan Park 2pm; Ballyhale Shamrocks v O’Loughlin Gaels, Nowlan Park, 3.30pm.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
